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E. P. =STBPHENS. AUTOMATIC GAR BRAKE.

1 -j Patented Deo. 17, 1889.

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No. 417,523. Patented Dec. 17,1889.

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NrrED STATES PATENT l rErcEo EDVARD F. STEPHENS, OF AUSTIN, NEVADA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO JOI-IN SPENCER, OE SAME PLACE.

AUTOMATIC CAR-BRAKE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Paten-t No. 417,523, dated December 17, v1889.

Application filed September 26,1889- Serial No. 325,139. (No model.)

To coll whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD F. STEPHENS, a citizen of the United States of America, re-4 siding at Austin, in the county of Lander and State of Nevada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements intAutomatic Car- Brakes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will 4enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in automatic car-brakes; and it consists in the construction and combination of the parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and as is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a bottom plan view of a car having my improvements applied thereto. Fig. 2 is an under side perspective view of one of the trucks. Fig. 3 is a side view, one of the trucks being shown in section. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view of abar for supporting the brakeabeam. Fig. 5 is a detail view of the casting which contacts with the brakebar.

In the accompanying drawings,A refers to the bottom of the car, to which the transverse timbers B for supporting the trucks are secured in the usual manner, so that they can have a pivotal movement thereon. These transverse timbers are of ordinary construction, and are provided with a king-bolt and central openings, through which pass the draw-bar to which the couplings are attached. To one side of each truck passes abar or rod connected to a hand-brake wheel or lever for operating the brake-bars independent of the automatic appliances, toV be hereinafter described'.

To the bottom of the car, in front and rear of the truck-frames, are secured hangers C C, the upper ends of which are spread and recessed to allow the draw-bar to pass beneath the upper central portions thereof, while the lower ends of said hangers are bent at right angles to project toward the axles, which projecting ends are bifurcated for pivoting the central vertical ,levers thereto.

The draw-bar D extends the whole length of thecar, and to the ends thereof are attaohed the couplings, which may be of ordi- 5 5 nary construction, though I prefer to employ the automatic coupling as described and claimed in any application filed by me of even date herewith. The draw-bar is supported beneath the bottom of the car and above the 6o timbers B B by means of the hangers C C, and between the trucks by supports c c, provided with anti-friction rollers.

The draw-bar D is held in place so as to slide freely longitudinally, and its movement is limited by the laterally-proj ecting ears d cl, which may be formed either on the ends of the draw-bars or upon the coupling-heads, and these ears abut against notches or stops formed in the draw-head.

The draw-bar D may be made of one piece, 0r of two or more 4sections rigidly bolted to each other, and at suitable points between the trucks this draw-bar is provided with longitudinal slots D', against one end of 75 which a pin, which passes through the bifurcated end of the lever E, will impinge so as to properly move the draw-bar when the handbrake mechanism is operated. This lever E is pivoted to the bottoni of the car in a suit- 8o able hanger, and to its long end is connected a rod E', which passes through supports, and to the outer end of this rod E is connected a flexible connection, as a chain, which passes around a wheel or drum mounted upon the vertical rod of a hand-brake wheel provided with the usual ratchetwheel and pawl.

The drawfbar has bearings f', which may be formed integral with the draw-heads or at- 9o tached to the draw-bar, and through these bearings f pass pins f2 f2, which secure the long ends of the vertical levers E F thereto, said levers being pivoted in the lower bifurcated ends of the hangers C C, while the short ends are bolted to the ends of a suspended longitudinal bar G, which lies centrally under the truck-frame and beneath the king-bolt thereof. It will be noted that the upper ends of these levers E F, through which loo the connecting-pins or bolts pass, are slotted to give the desired movement or play thereto. The bars G G are of sufficient length to extend beyond the transverse timbers of the truck-frames, but do not extend beyond the axles, especially when the brake is applied to a` four-wheel truck.

Rigidly secured to the truck-frames, preferably above the axles to which the wheels are attached, are two parallel metallic beams II II, the ends of which are provided with cylindrical housings containing coiled or spiral springs 7L 7L of suitable strength, and the inner ends of the housings have open-ended slots which support and guide the brake-bars I I, which carry the brake-shoes. The springs 7L 7L normally bear upon a cap located within the closed outer ends of the housing, and these caps are adjustable by set-screws, as shown,

and u pon the brak e-bars, so as to force and hold the shoes attached thereto upon the wheels, and when it is desired to hold one or more brakes off or out of contact with the wheels a pin may be inserted in the housing and passed through acasting, as shown in Fig. 5, attached to the brake-bars I I, so as to rigidly hold the brake-bar out of contact with the wheels, which canbe readily accomplished, as the system of levers employed all exert a pushing force against the brake-bars and are rendered inoperative by holding the same against the vertical ends of the slots in the housings. The brake-beams are provided with an attachment (shown in Fig. 5) consistingr of a bifurcated portion which straddles the brakebeam, and a reduced portion from which extends a projection which enters the housing and provides a bearing for one end of the spring situated therein. The reduced portion of this attachmentadjacent to the collar 1f is provided with a perforation, with which a pin engages to lock the brake-beam. The pins for holding the brake-beams and shoes out of contact with the wheels can be flexibly connected to the beams H H when not used for the purpose set forth.

As hereinbefore stated, the beams 1I H are rigidly connected to the truck-frames, and centrally they are recessed to allow the beams B B to be located beneath them, said beams having hangers, through which pass bolts g g, which form pivots for short levers or rockbars K K, to the ends of which are pivoted pairs of bars L L', each pair of which is connected to the brake-bars and to the ends of the short levers or rock-bars K K. The outer ends of the bars L L are provided with slots, through which pass pins or bolts attached to blocks or castings Z Z, which are rigidly bolted to the inner sides of the brake-bars, as shown, and said bars may also have shoulders which will abut against the castings.

The truck-frames between the longitudinally-suspended bar G and the inner ends of the short central pivoted rock-bars K K have supports m m, which sustain in place levers M M, the outer or short ends of which have pins n n, which engage with slots in the centrally-pivoted levers or rock-bars K K. To one side of and within the point where the bars L are pivoted thereto the long ends of these levers M M overlap each other and pass ,through the central opening in the suspended longitudinal bar G, and these long ends are slotted and secured to the bar G by a bolt, as shown.

rlhe central opening in the bar G is of such a length that the levers M M will not engage with the ends thereof when the truck turns upon its king-bolt, and the hangers C C are 4placed in such a position in line with the king-bolt and on each side of the truck-frame that it cannot contact therewith, and therefore the suspended bar G will always be held horizontally and parallel with the draw-bar, no matter what may be the position of the truck.

The brake-bars have rigidly attached thereto, adjacent to the inner sides of the housings, brackets p p, which contact with the exterior of the housings and serve as guides for the brake-bars and prevent lateral movement thereof.

My improved automatic brake is adapted to be applied to all styles of trucks, whether they are provided wit-l1 four or more wheels, and, if desirable, brake-bars may be applied on both sides of each set of wheels.

In operation, when the cars to which my invention has been applied are. being drawn or pushed by the locomotive, the brake-shoes will be positively held out of engagement with the wheels, and as soon as the locomotive stops or the brake-bars are relieved of pressure the brakes will be automatically applied. In practice the levers are so shaped or constructed that they will not interfere with any standard construction of truckframes; and they can be modified as to length and position as may be required without departing from the spirit of my invention. 1t will also be observed that I employ two sets of levers on each truck, each of which are connected to the central cross-bar, and each set act independently, so that when the drawbar is moved in one direction one set of levers will act upon the brake-bars to throw the shoes out of contact with the wheels, and when the draw-bar is moved in an opposite direction the other set will perform the same function. It will also be observed that, when desirable, the draw-bar can be held rigid and the brake-bars out of engagement with the wheels, which can be accomplished by properly setting the hand-brake or rather unbraking mechanism by placing the pins in place, which engage with the castings shown in If found 'desirable in practice, the draw-bars may be provided with springssuch as are used in connection with couplings and the draw-heads thereof-to take up the shock or jar in starting or stopping incident to the cars coming togethelgand springbumpers can be applied to the ends of the IOO IIO

y bars G, with which levers M engage, `said le-` lconnected at their inner ends to a pivoted rock-bar, and levers connected to the inner ends of said rock-bars and engaging with a suspended longitudinal bar having levers the long ends of which engage with a draw-bar, substantially as shown, and for the purpose set forth. l

2. The combination, in an automatic car? brake, of a continuous draw-bar having coup- 1ers attached to the ends thereof, hangers above which the draw-bar moves, levers pivoted to the hangers and connected at their upper ends to the draw-bar and at their lower or short ends to longitudinally-suspended vers being also connected to pivoted rockbars, and bars L L which operate to throw the brake-bar out of engagement with the wheels when t-he draw-bar is moved in either direction, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination, with the spring-actuated brake-bars, of bars L and L, rock-bars K K, pivoted levers M M, and a suspended bar G, which is actuated by a continuous drawbar D, having couplings attached direct-1y thereto, substantially as shown.

4. In an automatic car-brake,`the parallel beams having housings containing springs, the outer ends of said housings being slotted to receive brake-beams, brackets attached to the brake-beams to prevent lateral movement thereof, and a system of levers, as

shown, for throwing the brake-beams out of engagement with the wheels, substantially as shown.

5. In combination with the spring-actuated brake-beams, a double system of levers constructed and organized as shown and connected to a central suspended bar G, pivoted levers connecting said bar to a draw bar having couplings and slots with which the short end of a pivoted lever E engages, said lever being connected by a bar E and flexible connections to a drum which is adapted to be actuated by a hand-wheel, substantially as shown.

6. In an automatic car-brake, a longitudinally-movable bar having couplings at each end and means for suspending said draw-bar beneath the car-fioor, levers pivoted to the hangers on each side of the truck-framein line with the king-bolt thereof, the lon g ends thereof being slotted and connected to a suspended bar G, having a central opening through which passes a bolt which engages the slotted ends of the pivoted levers M M, said levers being centrally pivoted and having the short ends thereof connected with pivoted rockbars K K, and rods or bars L L', pivotally connected to the rock-bars and to the brakebeams, the outer ends of said bars L Lbeing slotted, whereby when the draw-bar is moved in either direction corresponding pairs of the bars L L will operate to move the brake-bar out of engagement with the wheels and compress the springs which are employed for forcing the brakes in an opposite direction, the parts being combined and organized substantiallyA as shown, and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD E. STEPHENS.

Vitnesses:

E. W. JoHNsoN, WILLIAM CAXTON. 

